Soul Mates
by joshua.ramiandrisoa.9
Summary: At age 11, Ava Romero moved to Los Angeles after the death of her racer father a year ago. She takes a job at the Toretto garage where she meets Jack O'Conner, the owner's nephew. The story focuses on Ava and Jack's moments as their close friendship escalates into romance.
1. Chapter 1

11-year old Ava Romero, along with her mother, Nina, and her 4-year old twin brothers, Carlos and Diego, climbed out of their car and they all took a gaze at their new home in East Los Angeles. It's not the best house in the world, but is pretty decent with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a basement, and a garage big enough to hold two cars.

"Well, here it is. Our new home," Nina said trying to be positive given what they went through for about a year. Nina is a tall 35-year old woman with long black hair and tan skin while Ava is a mini version of her but her skin is a little pale than her mother's. Carlos and Diego on the other hand are small and identical though Carlos has long shaggy hair while Diego has short hair which is spiked up in front. Nina carried Carlos while Ava carried Diego inside the house to show them their new bedroom which is empty for now except for their bunk beds. While Carlos and Diego run around to check out their new surroundings, Ava goes into her new bedroom which now only has a twin-size bed and a desk for studying. As she unpacks the stuff that she has taken with her while her other stuff is with the moving company, she pulls out a framed photo of herself, Nina, the twins, and someone who is not here anymore...her father, Javier. "I miss you, papa. Even though we are moving on, I love you with all my heart and never forget you," she said to herself while also clutching her gold heart-shaped locket which opened inside, is a photo of just her father and herself.

Just as they got the last of their stuff out of the moving van, a bald and muscular man along with a smaller and thin black-haired woman walked up to the house from their house across the street with some kind of baked goods on a plate on her hands. "Hey, there," the woman greeted Nina, Carlos, and Diego.

"Oh, hi," Nina greeted back as she shook both the woman and the man's hands. "I'm Nina Romero. And these little monsters are my sons, Carlos and Diego," Nina introduced herself and the twins.

"Hi, my name is Mia Toretto-O'Conner. And this is my brother, Dom," the woman introduced herself and the bald muscular man. "How are you doing?" Dom said. "So, where's your husband?"

"Oh, actually...my husband isn't exactly with us anymore," Nina said sadly which got Mia silently gasping.

"I'm sorry, Nina. I can imagine how hard it is for these little guys," Mia said.

"It has, Mia. But it was especially hard on Ava," Nina said which got Mia and Dom confused.

"Oh, right," Nina said then called for her daughter and Ava stepped out to meet the new neighbors. "This is my daughter, Ava. Ava, these are our new neighbors from across the street, Mia, and her brother, Dom," Nina introduced Ava and the new neighbors to each other.

"It's nice to meet you," Ava said politely to Mia and Dom as she shook their hands.

"It's nice to meet you too, Ava," Mia said and when Ava walked away to continue unpacking, she noted, "You have very beautiful children, Nina. They look a lot like you".

"Maybe on the outside. But, they definitely have their father inside of them. Especially Ava, unfortunately," Nina said quietly laughing.

"If you don't mind us asking, what was their father like?" Mia asked curious.

"Well, by day, he's a doting stay-at-home dad while I work as a lawyer and by night, he was a car racer," Nina said what she remembered about her late husband which got Dom's attention.

"He was a racer?" Dom asked.

"Yeah, he would work on a car every day and Ava would help him out. It was so cute," Nina said as she smiled. Then, Dom had a look which meant that he had an idea.

"So, Ava knows all about cars, huh?" Dom asked Nina.

"Pretty much. Her father taught her all there is to know and she wants to be a racer herself when she gets a little older," Nina answered.

"We have an auto shop/garage nearby. We could use some extra hands if Ava is interested," Dom offered to which Ava overheard.

"Oh, well, I appreciate the offer, but you know...we just got here and...," Nina said about to turn down the offer until Ava interrupted.

"No! No, Mom! I want to take this job!" Ava begged which made Dom and Mia laugh a little.

"I guess the girl has spoken," Nina confirmed with a smile.

"Okay, Ava, you can start this Saturday. You'd be working full-time on the weekends since on weekdays, you've got school and homework," Dom said to her.

"You've got other kids working in the garage?" Nina asked half-joking and half-surprised that they know the hardships of juggling school and work.

"I have a son, Jack. He also works there on the weekends. And his three best friends from school also help out. They're the same age you are, Ava," Mia explained. "You'll probably see them at school, so they can give you the ropes then, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks so much for this," Ava said then went back into the house to unpack more. A few hours later at night as she looked outside her window to get a good sense of her surroundings, she spotted someone coming out of the Toretto house with a trash bag. While he's under the street light, Ava got a good look at him. That someone is about her height, has short blonde hair styled like Diego's, has crystal blue eyes, and has a pretty athletic body. _Wow! That boy is cute! That must not be the Jack they talked about earlier, is it? Although it does make sense, he just came from their house. I'll know for sure tomorrow_. Ava thought before she changed into her pajamas and went to bed thinking about the possibilities of what her new school might be like.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning after breakfast, Ava, the twins, and Nina are on their way to their new school, Ridgeway Public School. Ridgeway is a school made up of three huge buildings: one elementary school (Preschool-5th grade), one middle school (6th-8th grade), and one high school (9th-12th grade). Nina drops off Ava first at the middle school, so that she could guide the twins to their preschool classroom. "Now Ava, you're going to have to take the bus home everyday since I'll still be at work. I'll be picking up your brothers during my lunch break and drop them off with Mia. I don't have an extra house key yet for you but until then when you get home, you will stay at the Toretto house until I get home tonight. Got it?" Nina reminded Ava to which she responded with a nod. After taking the twins to their preschool classroom, Nina left to her job at her new law firm. Ava wanders around the hallways looking for her 6th grade homeroom and decided to ask someone for directions.

"Um, excuse me...can you tell me where Mr. Bender's homeroom class is?" she asked an auburn-haired girl.

"Let me guess? Newbie?" the girl asked which Ava confirmed with a nod. "That's my homeroom class too. I'll take you there".

"Thanks," Ava said. "I'm Ava Romero and your name is...?"

"I'm Hayley Brown. So, where did you come from?" Hayley asked her new friend.

"I came from Tucson, Arizona. My mom, my little brothers, and I just moved here yesterday," Ava replied.

"What about your dad? Oh, are he and your mom divorced?" Hayley asked but soon begins regretting asking that question.

"No, he actually died," Ava answered and now Hayley began to really regret asking. "No, no! It's okay, I'm moving on which is sort of the reason I moved. Too many memories".

"Well, I'm sorry, anyway. Oh, we're almost there," Hayley said pointing to the classroom straight ahead and once they got to the door, Hayley stopped to talk to two other girls, one African-American and a blonde-haired one. "Oh, Ava, these are my friends, Kylie and Maddie. Girls, this is Ava. She's new here," Hayley introduced everybody.

"Are you in our homeroom?" Kylie, the African-American one, asked.

"Looks like it," Ava answered. "Forgive me for asking, but hopefully, you're not one of those really girly cliques who thinks of your looks as your #1 priority, are you? I don't really want to fall in that kind of crowd".

"I would rather shoot myself than be one of those girls," Maddie, the blonde-haired one, replied seriously.

"What Maddie is trying to say is that we're not really girly even though we do have our girly moments every once in a while. We're all on the girls' soccer team, so we're pretty much tomboys," Hayley explained which made Ava smile.

"Then, I'm going to like you girls," Ava said making the three girls laugh. The four girls then walked into their homeroom classroom where Ava goes to Mr. Bender and talked about her "newbie" situation. As she waited for Mr. Bender to start by introducing her, she spotted the blonde-haired boy she saw last night talking to his three friends, one African-American, one Asian-American, and a brown-haired one. She then finds out that the boy is indeed the Jack she heard about from the Torettos yesterday after one of his friends exclaimed his name. A minute later, the school bell rang.

"All right, class, take your seats. Class has begun," Mr. Bender started the class. "We have a new student joining us today. This is Ava Romero, she is from Tucson, so let's make an effort to make her feel welcome here," Mr. Bender introduced Ava who noticed a look of recognition from Jack's face which means he has been informed about her. After Mr. Bender was done, she sat at an empty desk in the second row of the classroom between Hayley and Jack, to which the latter smiled at her and she smiled back. She also caught someone else looking at her, a black-haired boy who is bouncing his eyebrows up and down therefore giving Ava a suggestive remark. As soon as homeroom was over, Jack came up to Ava.

"I'll catch up with you girls in a minute," Ava said to her three new friends, so she can go talk to Jack.

"So, you're our new neighbor that my mom told me about. Ava, right? I'm Jack O'Conner-Toretto," Jack introduced himself while he and Ava shook hands.

"I know. One of your friends indirectly introduced you by shouting your name," Ava joked making Jack laugh.

"Sense of humor. Nice! That's one of our qualifications of working in my family's garage," Jack joked back making Ava laugh back. "Well, I have to go to my classes now. See you at the bus on the way to my house, okay?" Jack said to which Ava nodded and the former left for his classes. During lunch time, Ava sat down at a table with Hayley, Kylie, and Maddie.

"Were you just talking to Jack O'Conner-Toretto after homeroom this morning?" Hayley asked.

"Yeah," Ava answered. "I moved in across the street from him. I'm also going to be working at his family's garage".

"You are so lucky. He's one of the cutest guys in school," Kylie said to which Hayley and Maddie nodded receiving a weird look from Ava.

"This is one of our "once-in-a-while girly moments" I was talking about earlier," Hayley said to which Ava understood.

"And what did he mean that he'll see you at the bus on the way to **his **house?" Maddie asked.

"Oh, my mom works as a lawyer, so she's at work most of the day. So until she can get an extra house key for me, my little brothers and I'll be going to Jack's house everyday after school until my mom gets home," Ava explained. The girls then continued on talking and went about their classes as the school day progressed naturally.


End file.
